Enda

Fair, but we'll be in the relegation zone in a month. The next ten or so matches is very difficult. Today was massive.

I dunno. There were a few hairy bits there.

Bloke has now scored against all of the top 4, hasn’t he? Three of them, anyway.

Trez is an experienced international who didn't immediately settle in England. Like the man between the sticks tonight. Still a lot of work to do, but there's a player there.

He is a big improvement on Taylor but anyone who’s even mentioning Mattie Targett in the same breath as the likes of Gareth Bale is 100% deluding themselves.

Yer dreaming. We’ve only won two in a row once this year, and that was against Norwich and Brighton. So if you’re offering, yeah I’ll take that bet.

February is massive. Hopefully we can pick up 7 points from those four fixtures, because we may struggle to get 7 from March and April combined.

No.

Okay. That means relegated with 39 points. Possible, but that would be very much on the high end of things. 37 points keeps you up the majority of the time, 38 points a bit more, and only once this century has 39 points got you relegated. Could happen of course, but I reckon you're being a bit pessimistic.

If you're talking about having a bit of breathing space then you're not talking about a minimum!

Really not sure about that. We have 25 points. 35 points kept you up last season, so by that metric we'd need 10 more points not 15. I think teams will need a little more than 35 points this year, and maybe we'll need the full 40, but 38 points keeps teams up 90% of the time. Only once in the past ten or twelve years was 38 points not enough.

Yep! Twelve matches. He even scored one, according to Wiki. Memory is biased. Think back on Villa players, and you're much more likely think of James Milner and Paul McGrath than Karim El Ahmadi and Habib Beye. We remember the stand-outs and forget the dozens and dozens of very average players who made good money at our club. Mahmoud hasn't adjusted to the league yet. He may never will. (I think there's a much better player in there than he's shown us so far, but that remains to be seen.) He wasn't even the worst player on the pitch today, nevermind the worst to ever pull on the jersey.

Isaiah Osbourne, Micah Richards, Alex Tonev, Chris Samba.

Sky Sports reporting it, does that warrant a thread? Ultimate source seems to be this newspaper in France, https://le10sport.com/football/mercato/exclu-mercato-as-monaco-un-club-anglais-degaine-pour-slimani-488358, who say we've made a bid.

Nonsense. Trez is a 25 year-old who has earned himself 40 international caps. He has struggled to adjust to the Premier League obviously, but there’s clearly a player there. Andre Green has started a dozen or so professional matches in his life. Comparing the two is madness.

Lads, Danny Drinkwater is eight years older than Dougie. 29 versus 21. Huge gap in experience. A pro for 12-13 years versus a pro for about 4. Huge. Doug had a nightmare against Leicester. He will *obviously* make amateur mistakes compared to even Danny **** Drinkwater. But Dougie is a player, and will achieve things in his career. I am not saying he has to start every match. Drop him for Hourihane or whatever if you want. But give him a proper chance

Nah, you hold on to Indiana. I sold him for £13 million to Hull after a year or two. Great bit of business.

I said a year ago that we were seeing Nervous Nyland, not his actual ability. I got eaten alive iirc.

I can’t believe that’s your takeaway from a well-earned draw at a top side.

Thinking of this stage ten years ago, against Blackburn. 6-4 at Villa Park. What a match. It's a little bit sad how less excited I am this Villa side.

I disagree with people saying this is a risk. If we're paying half his wages then a six month loan costs about £1.5m. I don't imagine Drinkwater's going to set the world alight, but that is a sensible bit of business.

Taylor's isn't the most gifted footballer ever, but he has always been a professional. He goes out and puts a shift in, every time. It's very unfair to compare him to Richards and Lescott, imo.

Dire stuff. Lack of quality, no commitment, poor tactics. Beaten by two good goals, but that covered up the cracks. Nyland made a good save or two, but played a complete hospital pass to Nakamba after 5 minutes. Taylor was Taylor. Crap. Centre-halves were alright. Elmo was fine, better than Taylor but didn't do much. Midfield was anonymous. AEG was poor. Nakamba did a thing or two. Lansbury and Hourhane didn't exactly light up the world. Kodjia made a few good runs and basically got the goal, but was otherwise trash. Lazy, disinterested performance. Smith's hesitation in making subs after 60 mins or so was, I think, a mistake. Hopefully this match scares Smith out of trying 4-3-3 again, and reminds the Board about our lack of quality.

Knockaert showing AEG and Trez what a bit of quality looks like.

Lovely cross by that young man. Fair play Fulham.